Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo 1942
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 7 August 1942 – 9 August 1942 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1942 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Solomon Islands | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Oceania | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Guadalcanal campaign, Pacific War, Solomon Islands Campaign, World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -9.1072, 160.1489 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, between the forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied (mainly United States Marine Corps) ground forces. It took place 7–9 August 1942 on the Solomon Islands, during the initial Allied landings in the Guadalcanal campaign.
U.S. Marines of the 1st Marine Division, commanded by U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, and the invasion force under Brigadier General William Rupertus, captured the islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo. The Japanese Navy had built a naval and seaplane base on these islands. The landings were fiercely resisted by the Japanese Navy troops who, heavily outnumbered and outgunned by the Allied forces, fought and died almost to the last man.
While the landings on Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo were taking place, Allied troops were also landing on nearby Guadalcanal, with the objective of capturing an airfield under construction by Japanese forces. In contrast to the intense fighting on Tulagi and Gavutu, the landings on Guadalcanal were essentially unopposed. The landings on both Tulagi and Guadalcanal initiated the six-month-long Guadalcanal campaign and a series of combined-arms battles between Allied and Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo (revision 1377059637), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Browse more: battles in Solomon Islands · Oceania · World War II era battles